Dojo Offline demo released with API

Brad Neuberg has released a screencast of a web-based word processor running on Dojo Offline. At the same time, the Javascript API is being released and is ready for evaluation.

Moxie is the word processor, with Javascript source and HTML source already available. It features local storage and offline access, demonstrating the use of the Dojo Offline API, which is available as well. The Javascript API is partly functional (more so in IE and Firefox than Safari), due to it delegating to the browser’s native cache if offline storage is unavailable. Neuberg describes how to get started:

To start using Dojo Offline now in conjunction with the browser cache, you must have the following in your JavaScript code: dojo.off.requireOfflineCache = false. You must also turn on HTTP caching headers on your web server; how to turn on these HTTP headers and which ones to turn on are explained in the Dojo Storage FAQ. See the Moxie code links below for more examples of how to use the API. Note that the Dojo Offline JavaScript API has changed, especially for syncing, since our API blog post about a month ago and has become much simpler — see the Moxie source for details. The demo of Moxie shown in the screencast above can also be played with right in your browser. Please note that both Moxie and Dojo Offline are still alpha; you are literally seeing Dojo Offline being developed in front of your eyes, and glitches remain in both of them. Please debug and provide test cases for errors you find to help development.

Neuberg is encouraging evaluation of Dojo Offline and looking for feedback. He has already begun development of the offline storage piece, based on Polipo.